Extremely unforgiving and rewarding, that’s the MMA world for you. For the fighters, the damage from their grueling training regimens and fights often manifests later in life. A similar incident has now happened to BJJ phenom Rickson Gracie. The 63-year-old, who comes from arguably the greatest family in the history of martial arts, recently revealed some startling health updates which included terrifying symptoms.
In a recent interview, Rickson Gracie, son of the legendary Helio Gracie, disclosed that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s two years ago. The 63-year-old Gracie family member listed down the changes that had been happening to him since the disease started to take its toll.
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Rickson Gracie has an unusual response to his illness
In the interview, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Vale Tudo legend Rickson Gracie revealed, “I’m ready for anything in my life… I accept life, and what I’ve done, so I’m happy today. But this neurologic condition opened my eyes to my age and to reality… I have some hand tremors, a certain movement deficiency, things I didn’t have before.”
“I don’t see it as a surprise, but as another gift from God to see what I’m going to do about it.”
Dropping a piece of wisdom, he said, “If I give you a lot of money and you do bad things, money hasn’t served for anything. But if I give you a lot of money and you do good things, then I’m proud I’ve given you so much money.”
The 9th-degree BJJ black belt expressed his gratitude for being able to motivate and empower people. He remained graceful in the face of this condition and showed his optimism for the remainder of his life. “I see myself swimming freely on a perfect blue ocean, waiting for the next day without too much concern,” he said.
The reference to the blue ocean might also be an indication of his love for the beach workouts, which were part of his training routine. These were beautifully captured in the documentary “Choke” which was about his life.
Conor McGregor was not the first one to use the ‘noodle-arm’ warm-up technique
It is interesting to note that while younger MMA fans might associate the viral “noodle arm” warm-up with Conor McGregor, Rickson Gracie was doing it long before him. Gracie used to do it as part of his warm-up before a fight. You can see it in the video below.
Prior to his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, UFC Lightweight Champion “The Notorious” Conor McGregor caused a stir on the Internet with his peculiar warm-up routine. McGregor let his arms go limp and swung them rapidly back and forth, resulting in what became known as the “noodle arm” warm-up. This strange workout went viral online and was made into many parodies too. But as the video above shows, this legend was already practicing it way before McGregor made it popular in the age of social media.
One of the greatest fighters of his generation, Gracie, had amassed an 11-0 professional MMA record during his career. Such was his confidence in his own ability that he even put the ‘baddest man on the planet’, Mike Tyson, on alert with his formidable fighting skills. Gracie also claims that he supposedly amassed a 450-0 record which includes unofficial fights – a claim that has, however, been disputed by many, including his own father Helio Gracie.
Rickson Gracie also played a big role in the development of Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo in Brazil. As reported by ‘Sherdog’, he was one of the first to accept challenges on the streets of Rio de Janeiro to represent his family.
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What do you think about Rickson Gracie’s approach to his condition? Let us know in the comments.
